The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has defended the decision to abolish AusAID, the government agency that delivers overseas development assistance. However, aid experts are worried that the decision is a sign that the new government is not interested in maintaining Australia's international committments to developing nations.

Transcript

TIM PALMER: The Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended the decision to abolish AusAID, the government agency currently delivering overseas development assistance. Mr Abbott says aid programs will now fall among the responsibilities of Australia's diplomatic corps at the Foreign Affairs Department.

Aid experts are worried that both moves are a sign that the new government isn't interested in maintaining Australia's international commitments to developing nations.

Peter Lloyd reports.

PETER LLOYD: For Tony Abbott, putting AusAID back into foreign affairs is a matter of good housekeeping in line with his promise to keep it simple in government.

TONY ABBOTT: Well, until quite recently aid was handled within the department. It's only in the last few years that this change has been made, and we're going to bring aid back inside the department.

PETER LLOYD: But there's more in this play than putting a brand back in a box. Listen to what the Prime Minister says next.

TONY ABBOTT: Because we want Australia's aid program to be fully integrated into our overall diplomatic effort. We don't want our diplomacy going in one direction and our aid program going in another direction.

PETER LLOYD: But what direction is that?

The Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop isn't speaking, but before the election Ms Bishop gave some insights into how she saw diplomacy - and by extension the aid program - being all about advancing the national interest.

That's a wonky way of talking about making sure there's commercial, trade and political dividends to be reaped from the diplomats work and the dollars spent abroad.

Having said that, and then announced cuts of billions from the aid budgets, and then shunting AusAID back into foreign affairs, the Coalition has triggered widespread alarm in the aid game.

This is Tim Costello from World Vision on ABC 702 Sydney this morning.

TIM COSTELLO: The growing budget of AusAID has had really significant impacts. So the concern is, do we lose some clarity on that focus? Because diplomatic and trade concerns of DFAT are absolutely legitimate and you can do something in the national interest as well as beating poverty.

I'm not a purist, but if you lose focus - and obviously there's been some cuts in the aid program, that becomes then a concern. So I think the jury's absolutely out on this. This may well work.

PETER LLOYD: There are similar worries at AID/WATCH - an independent aid monitoring organisation. Matt Hilton is the chair of the management committee.

MATT HILTON: AusAID has its problems but it was moving towards a better aid program, and putting it into DFAT is just going to exacerbate those problems.

PETER LLOYD: What difference does it make it being folded back under the umbrella of DFAT, given that that's where it was only three years ago?

MATT HILTON: What will happen under DFAT is that national interest will become the primary objective of AusAID, and that is bad news for the global poor.

PETER LLOYD: From Tony Abbott's point of view, the first benefit in the AusAID move is delivering on his pledge to cut the size of the public service.

TONY ABBOTT: Obviously we do intend to trim the size of the Commonwealth public sector by 12,000 through natural attrition.

PETER LLOYD: The union that represents workers in AusAID is still trying to assess how many jobs will go, and how soon. Nadine Flood is from the Community and Public Sector Union.

NADINE FLOOD: The most serious concern from AusAID staff is, of course, losing their job, but they are equally concerned about whether the work they are doing is about to be cut and subsumed into a broader trade focus.

TIM PALMER: Nadine Flood from the Community and Public Sector Union, ending Peter Lloyd's report.